The Slightly Evil Weed
Reefer madness is back. In an article in The Atlantic earlier this week, headlined “America’s Invisible Pot Addicts,” Annie Lowery sounded the klaxon on cannabis use disorder. “Users or former users I spoke with described lost jobs, lost marriages, lost houses, lost money, lost time. Foreclosures and divorces,” she writes. “Weight gain and mental-health problems. And one other thing: the problem of convincing other people that what they were experiencing was real.” But she’s here to tell us that it is. Oh, it is.
“Cannabis is potentially a real public-health problem,” said Mark A. R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at New York University. “It wasn’t obvious to me 25 years ago, when 9 percent of self-reported cannabis users over the last month reported daily or near-daily use. I always was prepared to say, ‘No, it’s not a very abusable drug. Nine percent of anybody will do something stupid.’ But that number is now [something like] 40 percent.” They argue that state and local governments are setting up legal regimes without sufficient public-health protection, with some even warning that the country is replacing one form of reefer madness with another, careening from treating cannabis as if it were as dangerous as heroin to treating it as if it were as benign as kombucha.
Vox seconded the warning, highlighting a particularly persuasive quote:
For Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, the most compelling evidence of the deleterious effects comes from users themselves. “In large national surveys, about one in 10 people who smoke it say they have a lot of problems. They say things like, ‘I have trouble quitting. I think a lot about quitting and I can’t do it. I smoked more than I intended to. I neglect responsibilities.’ There are plenty of people who have problems with it, in terms of things like concentration, short-term memory, and motivation,” he said. “People will say, ‘Oh, that’s just you fuddy-duddy doctors.’ Actually, no. It’s millions of people who use the drug who say that it causes problems.”
Well, yes. About 10% of users of anything will overuse or get addicted to anything. But if people can kick nicotine, is it really that hard to kick the weed, wherever it falls on the evil scale?
At least Vox stresses that just because marijuana isn’t entirely benign doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be legalized. But neither piece stresses an important point: Because weed is absurdly listed as a Schedule I drug, woefully little research on health effects has been done considering how widespread usage has been over the past 50 years. Knowing the risks might be the most persuasive method of convincing people to consume responsibly.
Pretty sure these folks would have lost it all no matter what they used as an escape. It is, at least, getting more and more difficult for the anti-healing crowd to make their case. The money is also getting harder and harder to ignore. While we may be hopelessly spiralling into a pit of fascism, at least greed still works.
To paraphrase to good doctor Thompson…
I hate to advocate for it, but it has always worked for me.
pretty sure he was talking about more than some harmless cannabis haha.
You’re right. The original quote refers to hard drugs They’re great too! It’s all worked for me. I was just trying to stay on topic. Hence the paraphrase.
In my experience ecstasy, cocaine and mushrooms are a real hoot. Acid is heavy, but effective.
N.B. Opioids are horrible. Never touched the stuff. Saw a girl OD after snorting H once. Awful. That’s where I draw a line and never cross it.
she could just have easily been describing booze
the same, if not worse, could be said about alcohol, tobacco, etc. It’s still a narcotic and should be treated as such but this seems like a bit much
you’re saying that cannabis should be treated like morphine?
In case anyone is interested. My gateway drug was Michelob. Not Ultra the real stuff. C. 1989.
Mine was Cigarillos in the 5th or 6th grade. I don’t remember how we got hold of a pack but there were several of us who went home to dinner reeking of cheap tobacco. I don’t know how our parents kept from busting out laughing.
See! And we ended up just fine.
Well, relatively fine anyway.
I dunno. I’ve never smoked another Cigarillo.
this from WDEL
A-hole.
“”I think today, more than ever, if we don’t talk to our children that are in third, fourth and fifth grade we’re behind,” said Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). “They know a lot of the stuff before we tell them that.”
……..He firmly believes marijuana can serve as a gateway drug to getting kids on the wrong path.”
https://www.wdel.com/news/video-tips-to-prevent-children-from-falling-victim-to-the/article_8d0f9602-a810-11e8-83e9-a3cb45aa5326.html
Special Agent Ellerman is obviously not familiar with the crisp refreshing taste of Michelob.
Anything that over used will turn in to evil weed!